Skyline

Skyline tells the story of Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and Elaine (Scottie Thompson), who fly to Los Angeles to meet Terry (Donald Faison), a friend of Jarrods. After a night of partying, they awake during an alien invasion, and all the madness that ensues. Directed by the Strause Brothers (Colin and Greg), a little clue as to the standard to be expected comes in the form of their only previous feature length film, Alien vs Predator : Requiem. Essentially, as fans of science fiction and both the Alien and Predator franchises, they took what they liked from the previous films and spliced them together, believing that they could re-energise a franchise with untold potential. Unfortunately, they failed. Miserably. So miserably in fact that their lack of imagination saw them lift shots directly from the original films and re shoot them. And if misery loves company, then Skyline is AVP:Requiem’s best friend.

From beginning to end, it seems as though we’ve seen all this before. It feels all too familiar, probably because it is. Beginning with the Cloverfield- esque late night party sequence that sees humanity enjoy their last moments of uninhibited freedom before the invasion, the highly technical alien beings descend upon earth and terrorise the city as in War of the Worlds, governed by an Independence Day type mothership. The humans fascination with the beauty of the light on show (remember Sunshine?), leads them to waltz into their own destruction, hovered up by alien pods, the kind recently seen in Terminator: Salvation.

Having said that, there is some originality and thought behind how the alien race functions; after the humans have been abducted and then deposited onboard the mothership, we eventually discover that they are essential to the expansion of the alien race, who are, perhaps, intent on colonization.. This is never built upon however, and like most aspects of the film it feels under developed.

Much too often are introduced but not developed, for example when Jarrod speaks of his apparent development of super human power, which he has retained from his initial exposure to the light in an early part of the film. It neither becomes a figment of his imagination, nor does he really exhibit power that would suggest him to be the genuine last, great hope of humanity which is alluded to by the dramatic execution of the dialogue in the first place.

Despite drawing inspiration from some of the great (and not so great) science fiction films of our time, Skyline fails spectacularly at seriously electing itself into the genre, instead becoming more or a comedy as time passes. The entire film eventually seems to become a parody of itself, even down to the very final scene with a depiction of what is meant to be an heroic finale. Unintentionally, of course.

What is even more disappointing about the film itself is that it threatened to be what War of the Worlds couldn’t. With the humans appearing hopeless and ultimately unlikely to be salvaged by basic earth borne bacteria, the outlook is extremely grim this time around. The portrayal of the extinction of our race is a rare commodity in cinema, and the boldness of suggesting this could well have allowed this to become a science fiction classic. Not to mention the fact that the race itself looks very impressive, with much of the airborne creations in particular beautifully crafted and could potentially have become a genre favourite.

Overall though, Skyline is a farcical attempt at piecing together a sci-fi blockbuster, and it fails to a massive extent having promised so much.

Rating:

1/5

The Social Network

It came out of nowhere. Millions of people are talking about it. And it could be talked about for years to come as a very clever successful venture. No, not Facebook, but rather the Facebook film. Or The Social Network, to address it by the proper title. For those unfortunate people who have been left out of the loop, The Social Network tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founding members of excessively popular networking site Facebook. Or rather it tells the story of how he ended up embroiled in a couple of high profile, high stakes court cases as a result of “his” creation.

It is important to mention from the off that Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) does not sponsor, condone, appear in, or promote this film. Not only that, but he has been quoted as stating that he movie got a lot of stuff wrong and random details right, illustrated by the fact that Facebook was not invented as a revenge mission on a girl who had just dumped him. With this information in tow, it is not entirely sure whether we are watching a biopic or a fictional drama.

That said, regardless of what genre it falls in to, The Social Network opens with an incredibly stark portrayal of Zuckerberg- belittling his supposed then girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) by suggesting that because she attends Boston University and not the prestigious Harvard like himself, she would never “get to meet people she otherwise would not meet” unless she stuck by him. Needless to say he gets dumped unceremoniously, with her having the final say; “you're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole”. Ouch.

The story itself is seamlessly interwoven between two separate law suits- one of which involving the Winklevoss twins: Cameron and Tyler (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), and the other Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield)- and a series of flashbacks, it is expertly crafted. For a film which threatens to be quite boring from a reading of the synopsis, it moves at quite a steady pace, all the while shot in a manner which we have come to expect from director David Fincher. It is dark, very dark. Poorly lit rooms and shadowy walls all point towards a visual representation of the loneliness of a now single Zuckerberg throughout his journey, his only solace at times coming from the eerie illuminating glow of a computer screen.

Eisenberg’s character isn’t portrayed any better as the film continues; quite the opposite. He’s an asshole, as we were told. He is intelligent, but maybe too much so. Genius? Probably, but with no social skills- even though he is actively trying to change that. He is blunt, ignorant, self centred, scheming, vengeful... but for some reason likeable. His humour lacks delivery but the punch lines excel. He doesn’t care for money, preferring respect amongst peers. And even though he betrays his best and only true friend, he still redeems himself to some extent in the final scene, showing that he is human after all. And humans make mistakes.

He is also emotional, charismatic, complex, driven, all of which displayed in one tender scene at a time when Zuckerberg should be attending an after party having reached one million members. The complex amalgamation of traits on display could in fact win Eisenberg an Oscar, at the very least announcing himself well and truly on Hollywood’s A-list. His performance is so commanding that the other characters remain on the periphery struggling to be noticed. Andrew Garfield’s wild emotional breakdowns are brushed aside, and Justin Timberlake’s appearance as Sean Parker (co-founder of music sharing client Napster) who appears to set the Facebook juggernaut in motion, is a little self indulgent and not at all as memorable as his previous roles in Alpha Dog and Black Snake Moan. Not to mention the incredibly repetitive and annoying Winklevoss’, or “Winklevii” are Zuckerberg creatively addresses them.

Perhaps one of the great achievements of The Social Network is the mixture of characters. There are real world professionals in the fields of law and education. There is royalty, students, college jocks, friends, enemies, popular people, unpopular people, girls, guys and the inevitable ex girlfriend. Essentially, it is an amazing visual representation of the real world social network, and the links between different people.

Overall this is an excellent portrayal of the rise and rise of an unlikeable person within a world full of different people and different personalities, and a world where a simple idea can be worth billions of dollars, but not (to paraphrase the excellent film poster) without making a few enemies along the way.

Rating:

4/5